| susymar said: What does the Xbox Live do that the PS3 network doesn't? |
Quite a lot of stuff.
Party mode for up to 8 players
6 communication channels that you can switch between at any one time (the game, party, 3 private voice chat channels, video chat)
Cross-game chat
Private voice chat
Proper invites/join system for every game
Voice messaging
Netflix streaming
Reputation system so you can ignore or prefer players globally
Report system for reporting abuse through the console itself
Inside Xbox that provides free video shows such as SentUAMessage
The ability to see what game your friends are playing and what exactly they're doing in that game
1 Vs. 100, a multiplayer quiz show with prizes
Leaderboards built into the dashboard that use Live data to show high score tables without you having to launch the game
Demos of every single downloadable title (one thing I hate about PSN)
Windows Live Messenger support, so you can chat to your friends via any device that can run that
Cheaper DLC quite often, the COD map packs being one example (£1.19 more expensive per pack on PSN)
New games added to the XBLA every week
There's a few other bits and bobs such as being able to view your friends' friends lists via gamercards, being able to bring up a person's gamercard via a high score table, being able to run an app on your PC that pops up the same notifications you get on the console (friends coming online etc.), but I don't think I missed any of the main features. Oh yeah, patches are MUCH quicker to download on Live and there's only ever 1 to download - whichever is the latest. I've never had a patch take more than about 20 seconds to download on Live. Sometimes I've fired up a PS3 game and been prompted to download several patches that can take quite a few minutes. There's no question that Live is a superior system. Having used it quite a lot before getting a PS3, I was disappointed with PSN as on various forums I'd seen people claim that it's "just the same", but it's really not. It has the core features for online play, but Live makes it easier to set up games and communicate. PSN needs at least cross-game chat and an equivalent of the party mode IMO, because they're features that I use pretty much everytime I use my 360. The only area where PSN beats Live IMO is in the cost, but I'm quite happy paying £26/£27 a year for Live as things stand now. Sorry for the double-spacing in that list BTW. Opera doesn't seem to work too well with this forum and inserts an extra line when you press enter.
